The Telling Of This Mill Worker

Amelia Peterson was born in Connecticut to Swedish immigrant parents. As far we know, she never became an industrial tycoon. She never became the namesake of any of any of the streets we drive on today. But her story was the story of Willimantic. We can very easily tell the history of Willimantic through the lives of the titans of the Willimantic industry who left their marks all over the town like the Jillson Brothers or William Barrows. Much more difficult, however equally important, is telling the history of Willimantic through the stories of those who made the factories run with their blood, sweat, and tears. Stories like hers are important not because of her actual importance to the town, but because of the importance to the town of the thousands of people who lived the same working-class existence that she did. 

At age 22 in 1910, Amelia was working in the mills as a thread winder. Like many of her fellow female mill workers, she worked in an unskilled, lowly paid position. She lived at the Elms Boardinghouse, suggesting that she likely worked for the American Thread Company located across the street. Many of her fellow tenants of the boardinghouse had worked for Windham Linen Company, and simply were switched to American Thread’s payroll in 1898. It is unclear how long Amelia herself had been living in the boardinghouse, as she only appears there in the 1900 census. She is notably absent from any city directories or previous and following Windham censuses. There are many things that this could imply. At this time, it would have been exceedingly common for a working-class or rural family to send their children and young adults to work in the mills. Many times, sons and daughters would have worked for a set period of time or until they had saved a set amount of money. Often, they were sending money home to support the family, pay off a mortgage, or pay for a wedding dress. In Amelia’s situation, any of these could be true, but the latter is a particularly enticing possibility.

Amelia was unmarried at the time of the census and does not appear in the census or directories in Willimantic again under her maiden name. This suggests she may have gotten married and left the boarding house as well possibly her profession between 1900-1910, exemplifying the often transient and youthful character of mill laborers at the time. This, however, was not the case across the board. Even in the Elms Boarding House where Amelia lived, there were many single men and women above the age of 40, many of whom appear living in the same place and working the same job in censuses and directories for previous decades, indicating a lack of easy socioeconomic mobility for those living in this economic stratum of Willimantic society.

It is all too easy to hear stories like Amelia’s and immediately pity people like her. This ignores her life outside of her profession, however. While it is extremely important to keep in mind the exploitative context of how she likely worked a grueling job with agonizing hours and little labor protections, we must remember she had a life outside of it, even if it is difficult to pin down. For one, the parlor of the boardinghouse, like many at the time, was a sanctuary of high-class refinement and culture, fit even for weddings. She likely would have spent much free time here socializing with friends, singing songs, seeing performances, and enjoying other forms of entertainment. Also importantly, coming from a Swedish immigrant background, it is very possible she would have attended the Swedish Ebenezer Lutheran Church on the corner of Summit Street and Oak Street and felt a sense of community there. Most ethnic groups who lived in boarding houses and worked in the mills like French Canadians and Irish had similar institutions of faith and nationality which created a deeper and more specific sense of community for them than the mills or their boarding houses could offer. Many of these communities still remain strongly tied together today with clubs, events, and ethnic places of worship.

Amelia’s story is not important because she was some huge figure to the town. It is important because when one takes her story along with the stories of everyone like her, you end up with a more complete and realistic story of industrial Willimantic than any recounting of all the stories of each company could create. Her brief time in the Elms and the difficulty in finding records of her life continuing into middle age place her as someone symbolic of the nature of mill labor, in a way an archetype of the young adult millworker in Willimantic. However, it also places her at odds with another archetype, the middle-aged mill worker living in a boardinghouse, for whom economic circumstances never allowed much mobility. From this distinction alone, we can gleam that Amelia was one of the lucky ones.